Pharmacy students' opinion of the routine use of pharmaceutical pictograms on a health care train serving rural limited literacy patients

Abstract

Objectives: To assess pharmacy student opinion of the routine use of pictograms for counselling and communicating medicine-related information.

Methods: A Google Forms survey was sent to co-ordinators at five Pharmacy Schools who distributed the link to 152 students following their 5-day work placement. The survey included Likert Scale and open questions on prior pictogram exposure, their usefulness in practice and their design.

Key findings: Opinion of pictogram usefulness in facilitating communication with patients was positive, with 104 (95.4%) rating their usefulness as good/excellent. Students noted language and low literacy as communication barriers which pictograms helped to mitigate. Only 24.8% (N = 27) reported that using pictograms required extra time during the dispensing process. Most students reported that patients liked the pictograms and found it easy to teach patients the pictogram meaning to clarify verbal and written medicine-related information. Pictograms were regarded by most students as simple, clear, culturally acceptable and able to communicate their core message clearly. A third agreed that they should have additional detail and be more realistic, some offered suggestions for modification. Many suggested expanding pictogram use to primary care clinics and hospitals.

Conclusions: This study presents unique finding relating to the role and value of pictograms in practice. Opinion of routine pictogram use was largely positive, particularly given significant language and literacy barriers in this rural population. The extra time taken using pictograms was generally not regarded as a barrier to their adoption. Pictogram quality and design were considered to be good, with expanded use of pictograms suggested.

Keywords: counselling; language barrier; limited literacy; medicine packaging; pictograms.